Kaufman man defends shooting that started tragic chain of events

Published 6:00 pm, Thursday, March 6, 2008

A Kaufman man who shot a 15-year-old boy in the arm who was near his front window last weekend says he feared the teen and his friend would break into his house.

"I don't think I had really much choice," W.C. Frosch, 74, said Thursday. "I think I was justified in what I done."

The shooting set of a tragic chain of events which ended when the friend's mother was killed in a traffic accident while taking the two teens to the hospital Saturday night.

The teen who was shot, Brandon Robinson, has said that he and 16-year-old Devin Nalls were innocently cutting across the property of Frosch, who is Nalls' next door neighbor. Robinson has said they were on their way to check out a party down the street.

But Frosch said Thursday that he still believes the teens planned to break into his house.

The Kaufman County sheriff's office has said the boys were not committing a crime when Frosch shot Robinson under the left arm. Frosch has not been charged with a crime. The case will be referred to a grand jury this month.

Devin's mother, June Nalls, died while rushing her son and his injured friend to a hospital. A driver who police say had been drinking drove into Nalls' lane, striking her pickup head on.

Frosch told The Dallas Morning News for its Friday editions that he mourned the loss of his neighbor. But, he said, the blame for her death lies with the driver whose vehicle struck her.

"She was on the way to the hospital, and the other fella pulled up and hit her," Frosch said. "I didn't kill her."

Frosch said that after he saw two figures in his driveway who he thought had come from a vehicle in the driveway, he grabbed a handgun and told his wife to call 911.

He said he then spotted someone a few feet away looking at his front door. Without saying anything, he tried to shoot, but the gun misfired.

"The first one snapped," he said. "And then I cocked again and he had moved forward some, and that's when I just shot him in the arm."

"I'm very proud that he's not dead. … I'd imagine that would've haunted me," he said.

In declining to arrest Frosch, authorities have cited the state's "castle law." Passed last year, it gives property owners the right to use deadly force against another person in defending themselves if they reasonably believe the person is committing or is attempting to commit certain crimes.